Does your heater work?

[berni29]

Hi There

On my last +2 I changed the matrix for the fiesta one, and it made a huge difference. From memory it was a bit shorter, but a bit of foam packed it out. I would rather shut my hand in the car door than do the same thing on my current +2, but what you can do to help is make sure that the blower motor is turning freely, and that the air ducting is connected up properly.

Also I have fitted two of those halfords 12v electric heaters (one each side). They take the chill off the air ahead of the engine warming up.

All the best

Berni

[Frank Howard]

Mine doesn't. It never really has. ...nobody could call me a fussy man, but I wouln't mind a little heat on occasion.

The factory Smiths heater is more than sufficient for the car. First of all, Obviously, Smiths didn't design the heater specifically to go into the +2. If they had, there would be a place for a standard radio. The heater was probably designed before Chapman even considered producing the +2 or the +0. So the heater was designed to go into what most likely was a car with a larger interior (as most cars had).

My +0 has a smaller interior than a +2, but mine also has a drafty top including gaps near the snaps on the top of the windscreen that I can put a pencil through. Last Saturday, I took it out for a spin. Once the motor warmed up, I was toasty in town however once I hit the freeway, the air leaks came into play. Despite the leaks, the heater was able to keep the cabin temperature at 60F or 16C. The outside temperature was -3F or -20C.

[gerrym]

Berni and Frank,

I too have been working at getting the heater and demister working to more modern standards. First move was to replace matrix with Fiesta Aluminium matrix (same basic pattern but 1/2" or so smaller so 2nd need for a little close cell foam). Next move was to replace the seals in the heater matrix so that the cold/hot flap and the flap for the demister function would seal as intended when new. The Smiths Motor was slowing down a lot under load so this has been replaced with a permanent magnet motor (from Elan 100) which will push through a lot more air. Last mod will be to use heatshrink to seal the ducts into the heater and prevent loss of airflow to screen.

I'm very curious as to what car the plus 2 heater did actually come from. The golden gate register parts list stated this as coming from a MG Midget but this is a completely different type of design with a centrifugal type of fan as opposed to the axial fan of the plus 2. The Escort Mark I heater does look a little similar. My guess is that Smiths did make a special bespoke heater casing for Lotus for the plus 2. It is for example an extremely tight fit and for its time, an advanced design utilising air-side temperature control. Most other British cars of the period including the +0 were of course using a water valve with the downsides of that system. Would anyone care to comment on where Ron Hickman got the heater from?

Regards

Gerry M

[mikealdren]

Gerry,
I'm pretty sure that the heater was mark 1 Cortina. I used to have a spare from a mark 2 Cortina but it wasn't quite the same. It did have a very similar casing and of course it had the same eyeball vents.

Once again I'm a bit behind you on my rebuild. Did you buy a new M100 heater motor and did it come with a suitable fan? The fan on mine disintegrated when I took it off!

Mike

[gerrym]

Mike, M100 motor was to hand. It took a bit of modifying to cut the supporting plate back to the correct size. Shaft was a little long and had to be trimmed to suit Plus fan blade and heater box depth.

Regards

Gerry
Note will send you a photo when I get around to it. Need some rubber grommets for mounting to body. Do you have a source for these?